by Steven G. Atkinson or take a short side trip to visit our advertisers.
Caution that bill may be just an advertisement.
The practice is not new, but there are domain-registering companies who routinely send out a document to the domain name owner, that appears as a bill to re-register your web name.
It is their way of having you transfer the registration of your web address from your current register to them. In some ways this may not be a bad thing, because at least it’ll give you an idea when your domain name needs to be renewed. However most times their cost is much greater than what you may already be paying.
If you don’t remember, or you don’t know because someone else set up your registration and that person is no longer associated with you, that’s just sloppy record-keeping.
However it wouldn’t surprise me that this may be more common than not.
Questions to ask?
Do you know what names are registered? Have you just registered as .com? Did you also register as .net and/or .org?
If not someone else may have registered one of those and are using you to drum up business for them. This may not be that important for those who use .com as their Top Level Domain (TLD). But for those who use .org or .net, just remember that many people will automatically type .com. And if part of your business is supplying information, you may want to look at getting a .info TLD.
Do you know with which domain-registering company you originally registered the domain?
Domain Registration and Domain Hosting are not the same thing. And for many these two aren’t held by the same company. It’s your Domain Registrar that tells the Internet where to look for you.
Do you know when your registration expires?
Once it expires, the registrar will send the url to a default location. If not renewed, it’s free to be registered by another party. There is a grace period, but during that time it’s not displaying your site. Can you afford to have it down for the time it takes to bring it back?
This is just another of those things that can, but shouldn’t fall into an unknown crack in how you do business.
Instant Communications is Now Possible, Is it a Good thing?
One of the biggest changes of technology over the past 25 years is now we have instant communications. 30 years ago instant communications was through the telephone. It may not have mattered where one was, a phone could easily be found. Payphones were everywhere.
If you needed to ask a question of your supervisor, you dropped a dime or a quarter or two into a payphone and called the office, hoping they would be at their desk. If they weren’t, you made the decision yourself and moved along. If you were good at reading your manager you probably was already sure what the answer would be even before asking the question.
As time passed communications got easier and for the roaming employee more like a leash. First there were the one way pager. You received a message to call a telephone number and off you went to find a phone to return the call.
For a short period of time, the same time as mobile communications, the car phone, was developing there were 2 way pagers. You could receive a message, in 2 way paging it was usually a text question and you could returned an answer with one of the pre-programmed messages. 2 way pagers were much cheaper and more reliable than a mobile cell phone.
Mobile phones first were in the car and then in a portable device that resembled a brick. And as we progress in technology, instant communications became easier.
But it seems to me that at times as communications became more instant, people became less able to decide something without having another opinion. It developed not only in the work arena but also at home. Many times I have heard a husband or a wife call the other partner while in a grocery store asking whether a substitution was acceptable.
Decisions are made as a team or by the supervisor. Original thinking by a lower level employee sometimes was no longer commendable, but became insubordination even in middle and lower upper management.
One would think that with instant communications issues can be resolved quicker and with a better outcome. However, at times I wonder if with instant communications it takes longer and the decision may not be the correct one. The farther the decision maker is from the situation, the less that person considers the personal customer service aspect of the decision.
So I will ask.
Is Instant Communications Good or Bad?
What is your opinion?
Socal Media is a form of Networking
In my opinion Social Media is a form of networking. I don’t know whether anyone else has that same opinion, but it is mine.
As with any type of networking you get what you put into it. Have you ever come out of a Networking Event and felt that you got nothing out of it?
Did it seem that all you did was enjoy the food, beverages and company of those you already knew?
If that was the case you probably did come out with the feeling that nothing had been gained.
In Social Media some are doing something very similar. They have created a Facebook page, a Twitter Account and possibly even a LinkedIn account.
But after creation they have done nothing. This is like going to the Networking function and enjoying the food and beverage. Satisfying at the time, but short lasting.
It’s the interaction with others both at the Networking function and with Social Media where you will enjoy an extended benefit.
In your social media give useful and interesting information not just an advertising blurb. It’s thought that you should keep your advertising conversations in Social Media to around 30% of your interactions.
Don’t ignore or try to remove critical comments. Engage them in a dialogue to discover the reasons. It’s possible that after an exchange both you and the one who gave the criticism may come to a common ground.
Social Media like networking is a conversation and the best gains are made by interactions by both parties and not one.
Amazon Expands Kindle Line and adds Fire
September 28, 2011
Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos announced four new devices today. One of these was the much rumored Fire a 7 inch tablet.
Unveiled was the Kindle Touch ($99), an updated non-touch Kindle ($79), a new Kindle 3G ($149). And the product that many expected the Amazon Fire ($199).
The Fire ships Nov. 15, but it will probably be best if you want one to put your pre-order in as soon as possible.
The Fire is a 7-inch dual-core Wi-Fi tablet although it doesn’t have a camera or 3G. The specs says it will come with 6GB of internal storage.
The Fire also features Amazon Silk, a new browser that can render pages either locally on the device or on Amazon’s cloud, which Bezos says will lead to faster performance.
Perhaps most importantly, however, the Kindle Fire features deep integration with all of Amazon’s content services (apps, movies, music, cloud storage, eBookes, magazines, billing system).
“The question is: Why is Kindle working? Why is this working? I believe it’s because Kindle is an end-to-end service,” Bezos said, according to a live blog of today’s event posted on Engadget.com. “And I believe it is because we have been inventing and improving that service at a rapid pace for the last four years.”
Do These Bother You Too?
E-mail has become a common office tool for communications. For some it may be their major form of communicating with clients and associates. There may even be others whose only form of communications is through e-mails.
I firmly believe that Business E-mails should be treated exactly like a business letter, following the same format. Although I will admit that not all emails sent to business associates are business emails. The majority of these Pet Peeves are in these non-business e-mails.
Here are a few of my E-mail Pet Peeves:
• Forwarded e-mail from friends, relatives or business associates passing along jokes and false or misleading information.
• Forwarded e-mails that have been forwarded multiple times showing the email addresses of all of those that it had been forwarded to.
• Receiving an answer to a question either through a new email or by reply without the question.
• Being BCC: on an e-mail without clear indication that the email was sent to someone else.
• Being part of the To: line when in reality the e-mail was CC:ed to you.
Appliance Off – It Doesn’t Mean No Energy Used
Many modern appliances may be using as much as 15 to 30 watts when off or in Stand-by mode. Some may actually be using the same amount of energy off as they are when on. One common term for these devices is ‘energy vampires’.
Stand-by power is estimated to be as much as 5 percent of all residential energy being used in the United States. A homeowner can see hundred of dollars per year being used by stand-by power. It is estimated to be about 65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year costing consumers more than 5.6 billion dollars.
What are some common items that use this stand-by power? Anything with an external power pack, has a remote control or displays a clock will be using some stand-by power. The most common are TV’s VCR, Cable Boxes, Stereo Systems and battery chargers.
The real problem with this stand-by power consumption isn’t that they use power, but they have been poorly designed to use more power than necessary. Manufacturers presently have no reason to design their products with efficiency in mind. Only when consumers begin to evaluate brands with this as a consideration will that occur.
In many cases the older the appliance the more energy it may be using than with a newer model. When purchasing a new appliance look for the one that uses the least amount of stand-by power by checking the label and specifications.
While it may not make much sense to unplug the TV, VCR or DVD player when not in use, it may not be a bad idea to unplug these devices when away for an extended period of time such as when on vacation or even a weekend away.
One thing you probably would want to consider unplugging when not in use are battery chargers for items such as cell phone, MP3 players and blackberries. If you have all of these chargers plugged into the same power strip simply turn the strip off when not in use. Make it a habit to charge all of the devices at the same time and turn the strip off when done.
For more information on conserving energy: More Than Switching Off the Lights – Common sense ways to conserve energy
© 2007 Steven G. Atkinson – All Rights Reserved – tt4sb.com
What’s Your Password?
Just about everything has a password associated with it. But many of us are not doing a good job at password creation as usage.
Do you …
Use the same password?
Many of us create one password and use it everywhere. Once the password is discovered by a scammer/hacker then it can be used.
Have personal information as part of your password?
Many of us use our children or pet names or other personal information as part of the password. A hacker can and will be able to discover this information and use it to decode the password.
Use a real word?
There are software programs that can go through every word in the dictionary until the the right password is discovered.
Write the password down and keep it close to the computer?
Yes, it’s not a good idea, but we all seem to do it.
Password Best Practices
Since many places allow passwords that are case sensitive, use both upper and lower case letters in the password. such as: PaSSworD – Note never use password, or common sequence of letters (abcdef) or numbers (12345) as a password. Those are the most common ones.
Have special characters and/or numbers as part of the password.
Use initials of a phrase that is easy to remember.
Use different passwords for everything.
Telephones and Customer Service
Sometimes what may look like a nice technology advancement may in reality be a Customer Service nightmare. Whenever we use technology in business we need to relate it back to how we do business and our principles.
Auto Attendant
Many businesses use these. They are without an doubt a cost saver. A business doesn’t have to have a call taking receptionist. Just let the automatic voice answer the telephone and with a short menu of command they are directed to where they need to go.
However many businesses have Auto Attendants that are useless or just confusing to the caller. After listening to the commands was that 1 for John at Sales? Or maybe it was 2. Or I was looking to reach Jane and she’s not mentioned. That’s because she has replaced John, but the Auto Attendant was not changed.
Or after the list of items were given, but none of the options seem to be the one the caller wants.
And then there’s the problem when each and every item takes the caller to another menu or a Voice Mail Box.
Voice Mail
It has become a to common practice for some people to always have Voice Mail answer their calls. Or to give their caller no idea on when they may be receiving the Voice Mail and having their call returned. I’m sure many of us have placed a call to a person, left a message, or two or a dozen only only to discover two weeks later that they had just started their two weeks vacation.
Some of these problems can be resolved simply by using common sense. Answer the telephone with a real person who can make a quick decision on the right place to direct the caller. If an Auto Attendant is necessary, check its options and correctness. Always check after any type of office change.
Change the Voice Mail greeting as often as needed. For some people that may only be a few times during the year. An office worker who is at the desk just about every day and the call only rarely goes to Voice Mail and when it does the call is returned within the hours, may only need to change it when they are on leave.
Others may need to change it a few times during the day.
Then again the business can, and really should have a Telephone Usage Policy that is in place and followed by all.
Have You Done One of These?
We all have been using email, the telephone and cellphones for a longtime. Some of us may not even remember a time without cellphones or email. But at times the things we use every day become so common place that we will make embarrassing mistakes.
How recent have you done one of these? Or do one before the end of the year?
Email:
Use Reply All when intending reply only to the sender.
Send a list of email address embedded within the body of the message to someone who may be collecting addresses. Or send a private email address to a person that the address owner would rather not have it known.
Send an email referencing an attachment, without adding the attachment.
Be reminded that the attachment was not attached by a person who you are trying to impress.
Telephone:
Think that the telephone is muted and say something you don’t want the other party to hear. Or say something inappropriate.
Accidentally conference two parties together.
Erase a voice mail message that holds important information, more than likely it’ll be important contact information.
Start leaving a voice mail message to someone only to discover you are actually talking with the person.
Leave a message or adding to the message on someone’s voice mail thinking that you have been disconnected, but not.
Energy:
Turn the lights on in the supply room, forget to turn it off only to find that it was left on for the entire weekend. Worst a long weekend.
Wonder why the office is cold, use a space heater only to find that the thermostat was blocked from getting room air.
Cellphone
Forget to turn the ringer off on the cellphone before entering an important meeting and then have the phone ring. Worst case, heading a meeting and requesting that everyone silent theirs only to have yours ring.
Forget where you are while talking on the phone and talk about important or private information where others can hear.
Stop in mid conversation with someone to answer your cellphone without an apology.
Have a person respond to something you said while talking to the cellphone. Or respond to another person who is on their phone.
While there’s not a way to completely eliminate any of these things from occurring, by taking a second to think and not rushing can help.
Desktop Clutter
There are more things to cause desktop clutter than the items that the eye can see.
There’s always the cable mess that seems to arrive with computers and other electronic items needed to perform your job. The electric cords and the large ‘bricks’ that accompany some items seem to always be in the way or causing an eyesore. Many manufacturers sell items such as cable ties to secure cable, wide outlet plug strips for those big bulky transformers.
And you can always use a wireless keyboard and mouse to keep those cables out of hand and sight. They have their problems as well. They run on batteries that need to be changed or recharged. Not to mention they need to be turned on before use and off afterwards, otherwise the batteries are replaced constantly. Sometimes it may seem just as easy to have those couple of wires on the desk instead of the constant changing of batteries. But like everything, that’s a personal choice.
But you may be totally surprised to find that clutter resides in your computer. Clutter in your computer could be anything from the adware and spyware that has been installed onto your computer without your knowledge, to just a bunch of old unused and long forgotten files (programs and documents) and folders.
The huge hard drive you purchased thinking it was so big that you would never fill may now be starting to run out of space. Music and video files, even those compressed, when you have 100’s and 1000’s of them take up a lot of room.
Here are a couple of things you can do to help ease that filling hard drive. Take a look at the programs that are on your computer. Is that program you tried a while ago, decided you hated and now have never used still on the computer? It’s probably time to look, evaluate and remove any programs that you have never used.
Another thing you may want to do is check your emails. Do you have old messages that have huge attachments in them? A few may not seem like much, but if doesn’t take too many message with pictures to take up a lot of storage space.
Don’t forget to check your music files. Podcasts have become a common element in today’s life but do you download a daily one, listen to it once, but have no desire to ever listen to it again. Are they still residing on your computer’s hard drive. It’s just like the pictures in your email a few isn’t bad but once you have 100’s it takes up room.
Then again there is another, more technical, answer in case you are running out of room on your hard drive. You can always buy a new bigger one.